Nowadays we are producing more and more rubbish. Why do you think this is happening? What can governments do to help reduce the amount of rubbish produced?
Sample Response
It is undeniable that the increment of rubbish is giving problems to the society. In my opinion, this issue did not exist in the past, until thirty years ago, the change of human behaviour. There are a few reasons that cause the volume of rubbish increase. Let me illustrate the causes. First of all, from my point of view, one of the main reason for increasing rubbish is, overly purchase habit of people. Often, people nowadays tend to buy more than what they really need. It is very clear and obvious that whenever there are promotions, the sales volume will increases. As a result of that, people buy items that will not be used for a period of time and it will then be thrown away. Therefore the volume of rubbish is increasing. Apart from that, I would say, the lack of recycling practices in the society is another main reason. Recycling could reduce the volume of rubbish in the world by reusing the thrown away materials. By doing so, it could also reduce the usage of natural resources. Last but not least, a proper way of disposing of wastage and rubbish is a must. By implementing a proper way of disposing of rubbish, it could save cost and manpower to control the volume of rubbish at the same time. In conclusion, it is essential to control the volume of rubbish in the society. The government could educate the citizen with the knowledge of reducing rubbish in a good way. The government could hold campaigns, advertise or even educate the citizen, starting from young, maybe from primary school. If this issue continues to go on, it would cause damages to the earth, action must be taken before it is too late. I believe, government and citizen must work together in order to achieve this goal, as all things can be done with unity.
IELTS Writing Correction
- 1. Use natural quantity phrase Original: increment of rubbish Suggested revision: increase in rubbish Why it matters: Increase in is the natural expression for a growing quantity of rubbish.
- 2. Use correct collocation Original: giving problems to the society Suggested revision: causing problems for society Why it matters: Cause problems for is the appropriate collocation, and society needs no article here.
- 3. Add infinitive marker Original: cause the volume of rubbish increase Suggested revision: cause the volume of rubbish to increase Why it matters: The causative structure requires to before the infinitive increase.
- 4. Use plural after one Original: reason Suggested revision: reasons Why it matters: One of must be followed by a plural countable noun.
- 5. Name the increase clearly Original: for increasing rubbish Suggested revision: behind the increase in rubbish Why it matters: The revision clearly identifies a reason for the growing quantity of waste.
- 6. Repair the noun phrase Original: is, overly purchase habit of people Suggested revision: is people's excessive purchasing Why it matters: The revision removes the incorrect comma and forms a grammatical noun phrase.
- 7. Remove redundant relative Original: more than what they really need Suggested revision: more than they really need Why it matters: What is unnecessary after the comparative phrase more than.
- 8. Remove redundant wording Original: very clear and obvious Suggested revision: clear Why it matters: Clear and obvious repeat the same meaning, so one adjective is sufficient.
- 9. Use base verb form Original: increases Suggested revision: increase Why it matters: A modal verb such as will must be followed by the base form increase.
- 10. Use formal addition marker Original: Apart from that Suggested revision: Furthermore Why it matters: Furthermore signals an additional cause more directly in this context.
- 11. Remove unnecessary article Original: recycling practices in the society Suggested revision: recycling practices in society Why it matters: Society is used generally here and does not require the definite article.
- 12. Use concise modifier Original: the thrown away materials Suggested revision: discarded materials Why it matters: Discarded is the natural adjective for materials that have been thrown away.
Suggested Rewrites
- increment of rubbish increase in rubbish
- giving problems to the society causing problems for society
- cause the volume of rubbish increase cause the volume of rubbish to increase
- reason reasons
- for increasing rubbish behind the increase in rubbish
- is, overly purchase habit of people is people's excessive purchasing
Why this response received Band 5.5
The essay identifies overconsumption and weak recycling habits as plausible causes and proposes public education and campaigns as government action. Its central message remains understandable, but the second question is addressed briefly and late, while repetitive linking, a single-block structure, and frequent language errors limit precision. Prioritise a distinct solutions paragraph that explains how specific government policies—such as recycling collection, packaging rules, or financial incentives—would reduce waste.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
Relevant causes are identified and government education is proposed, but the government-response part is much less developed than the explanation of causes.
Give two specific government measures and explain the mechanism by which each would reduce the amount of rubbish produced.
Coherence and Cohesion
The response moves broadly from causes to action and uses clear signposts, but it is presented as one paragraph and linking is often repetitive or mechanical.
Separate causes from government solutions and ensure each paragraph develops one controlling idea rather than placing new policy content in the conclusion.
Lexical Resource
The vocabulary is adequate for discussing waste and recycling, but frequent inaccurate collocations and word forms reduce naturalness and precision.
Replace phrases such as 'increment of rubbish', 'overly purchase habit', 'disposing of wastage', and 'cause damages' with standard waste-management language.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Simple and complex forms are attempted, but errors in agreement, articles, sentence boundaries, countable nouns, and clause construction are frequent.
Practise structures such as 'one of the main reasons is', 'sales volumes increase', and 'governments and citizens must work together'.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
Nowadays we are producing more and more rubbish. Why do you think this is happening? What can governments do to help reduce the amount of rubbish produced?
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.